The visit and casual chats at his own website's offices still gave Chu Ge a strange sense of satisfaction. The "annual gathering" he had once longed for worked on much the same principle: it made him feel he had joined the website's front ranks, able to laugh, drink freely, and sling arms around shoulders with editors and other star authors.
Though it seemed to have no practical significance, when you worked in an industry, you always had some aspirations toward its "upper reaches," rather than simply hiding alone in a dark little room and settling for making a little money from the words you typed.
Apart from having a title to introduce yourself with-"I belong to such-and-such Writers Association"-that sense of belonging to a "group" was another important reason for joining various online writers' associations and Writers Associations. It made you feel you were not a ghost drifting across the internet, that you had a collective, a "base."
It made you feel you were still alive, that you still had expectations of society.
Unfortunately, in practice, the Writers Association only held empty, pointless meetings, while the online writers' association was even less useful. In the end, it became nothing more than an excuse for group dinners. Chu Ge had not taken part for a year or two.
Visiting his own website's offices had at least given Chu Ge a little of that "half-full" satisfaction. He had met his editor and the chief editor face-to-face, and that was enough.
As for the big boss... he might have to see him again at dinner later, but that was already a matter belonging to another world. Chu Ge always felt it had absolutely nothing to do with writing.
Chu Ge had not even planned to hitch a ride with the boss. After leaving